what? : 04/26/2026

huh?

alright i'll just skip straight to the point.

i don't remember a damn thing that happened this week. if i had a gun to my head, i still literally could not think of anything!

because of this, i'm uhh- i'm not really sure what to write about? but i still gotta write something down... so...

hmmmm......

oh- right okay... i can write about that!

HALF-LIFE

i think it's a crime that i've never fully played through the first Half-Life. and recently i've been doing my best to rectify this, by... well- playing through the first Half-Life, duh.

i've been recording and uploading my sessions to youtube just for fun, and i've also linked them in the gallery now too!

i loved the hell out of Half-Life 2 (and it's episodes of course), but i couldn't seem to get myself through HL1 for some reason? fortunately, my current playthrough is showing me that i was a fucking dumbass and this game is great and i absolutely should've played it sooner.

i'm not going in completely blind, but i've never actually seen the entire game start-to-finish. so it's practically a blind playthrough! probably...

does knowing the vague outline of the plot, but never seeing the entire thing laid out properly, count as a blind experience? i'd say so! but if you don't agree, then leave your complaints... nowhere! keep them to yourself actually, i don't want 'em!

so far i've made it just part way through "On A Rail". (yikes)

listen, i heard things about "On A Rail". but i didn't know most of those things were true. i was under the impression that it was gonna be a HL2 "Highway 17" kinda thing where people say it sucks but it's not really that bad and actually pretty fun in some parts, but NO... "On A Rail" is straight fucking evil.

okay fine, maybe that's a bit of an overexaggeration, but goddamn this chapter is just... i don't even know? and (at least at this point of my playthrough) it's the chapter with the highest density of game design choices that make me go "what the fuck? why?"

the first thing that really got me going were those spinning signs you're supposed to shoot to change the first cart's direction. i know that might've made a shit ton of sense back then and, it still kindaAlmostMaybeNotReally makes sense now? but even then, how the fuck is a little spinny sign supposed to change the direction the cart goes in? it's literally just a sign!

i feel like keeping the signs but making them flip with a lever pull would've made the whole mechanic immediately more obvious, because i definitely went around that first loop like- 3 times before realizing i could shoot the signs to change direction.

the next thing was the two slow spinning elevator sequences. at least i've only encountered two so far, please don't tell me there's more of those.

they make you put the cart in a slow elevator that spins in a very sickening way, and you're expected to fight military guys while that's happening? and then they do that AGAIN???

i did end up doing both sections in a way where i just cleared out the elevator of all the military dudes, and only after did i ride it up. but even doing that was a fucking chore dude! i can't imagine what it would've been like if i did it properly!

i would mention the fact that the game eventually makes you get on... a second cart, but... ehhh? that's honestly really tame compared to the previous two "what the fuck? why?" moments.

i guess "On A Rail" isn't HORRIBLE but it's still just... it's really not fun. and i'm not even all the way through it yet!

every other chapter of the game before was fine really it was just more shooting things in typical Half-Life fashion and i love shooting things! so no complaints there.

ok i'm running out of focus and i can't think of anything else to write so uhmmm go watch my Half-Life videos bye